Win a Copy of The Good Father
Guess what arrived today? That’s right—my author’s copies of The Good Father! My copies came a little late this year and I was getting nervous. I had to flip through the book to be sure all the pages were there, along with the discussion questions and the interview with me about the book. Everything is…
Read MoreStory Weekend: Boxes
Talk about an open-ended topic! I’m not going to start it off with my own story this week because I don’t want to influence you in one direction or another. I look forward to seeing what this theme brings up for you. If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a…
Read MoreBuilding a Book
Why I don’t have time today to write a complete blog post: I’ve been restructuring Saving Ivy Hart for (what I hope is) the final time on the storyboard. Still haven’t quite figured out the ending, but I’m getting closer. Now I can take the storyboard down and it can return to its rightful place–…
Read MoreLife Without Television
Okay, the title of this post is a bit of an exaggeration. Our 60″ TV died, rather dramatically, and now we’re left to realize just how much TV we watch. We’re not completely lacking: we do have a small TV in the bedroom and we watched Mad Men last night and will watch Smash tonight.…
Read MoreStory Weekend: First Love
Whether it happens in kindergarten, high school or college, nearly everybody experiences the high (and sometimes low) of first love. I’d love to hear about yours! If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret…
Read MoreA Message for my UK Readers: Brass Ring is now in Print!
Brass Ring was my sixth novel and one of my few early books to be published in the United Kingdom. I was able to make it available as an ebook about a year ago, and I’m delighted that my former UK publisher, Little, Brown, has now made it available in print, too. In Brass Ring,…
Read MoreI'm in China! Or at Least The Midwife's Confession is.
I just received the authors’ copies of my first book to be published in Chinese. (at least I think this is Chinese! If I’m wrong, I hope someone will correct me!). Sorry the image is so odd. I snapped it on my kitchen counter as I was rushing out the door so you get the…
Read MoreStory Weekend: Pillows
I’m not a neat freak, but I am germ phobe. I hate bugs, especially the itty bitty invisible ones like bacteria and those creepy dust mites. But don’t try to take my decades-old feather pillow away from me! I wash it of course, but I imagine it still has some very mature creepy crawlers in…
Read MoreThrowing in the Towel on Scrivener
Look at the top of my dining room table. It’s so beautiful, I could kiss it. It looks like home to me, and I’ve been homesick. You might remember back in October when I was teaching myself how to use the writing software, Scrivener. I was so enthusiastic. Many of my writing friends use Scrivener to…
Read MoreStory Weekend: The Magazines in Your Life
My work-in-progress is set in 1960, so I went on ebay and bought a whole slew of magazines from that year. Despite the mildew (wow, do old magazines reek!), I’ve enjoyed checking out the news of the day (Kennedy vs Nixon), the fashion (girdles, garters and shirtwaist dresses), and especially the advertisements (Ipana toothpaste, S…
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